JUDICIAL PROCESS – GOVERNMENT POLICY – VICTORIA

Chief prosecutor attacks ‘extreme’ sentencing laws

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Original article by Steve Butcher
The Age – Page: 8 : 20-Oct-14

Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark in August 2014 announced new baseline sentencing for serious offences. Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Warren and County Court Chief judge Michael Rozenes criticised the move, and chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert QC has now also labelled the Government’s decision an over-reaction and a dangerous path to a mandatory sentencing regime. However, he acknowledged that the often complex and obscure verdicts of a number of Court of Appeal judges had prompted the Government’s action

CORPORATES
VICTORIA. DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS, VICTORIA. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA, SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA, COURT OF APPEAL (VICTORIA), CRIMINAL BAR ASSOCIATION OF VICTORIA

Jury challenges should be halved: commission

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Original article by Jane Lee
The Age – Page: 4 : 4-Sep-14

Defendants in criminal trials in Victoria have the right to make as many as six peremptory challenges to juror selections. Juries Commissioner’s Office data show that in 2013 two thirds of female jury candidates were the target of a challenge, but only a third of male ones. In order to boost diversity, the Victorian Law Reform Commission recommends halving the number of allowable challenges to three. It also wants jurors to be referred to during the court proceedings by numbers rather than their names. Attorney-General Robert Clark has pledged look at the issues

CORPORATES
VICTORIAN LAW REFORM COMMISSION, VICTORIA. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, VICTORIA. JURIES COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE, SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA